158 MINING INDUSTEY. 



The outlay for this work, as shown in the foregoing statements, inchides 

 all cost for timbering, repairing, placing pumps, and operating the hoisting, and 

 pumping machinery. 



Concerning the stated costs of mining in the Imperial and the Crown 

 Point mines, as given in the first table referring to this subject, there are no 

 detailed analyses presented in the published reports of those companies. It 

 may be repeated, however, that, in the case of the Imperial, the figures given 

 for the Holmes and Alta mines apply only to the mining of the ore, or to 

 what, in the accounts of the Savage and ChoUar-Potosi, is termed "extrac- 

 tion ; " they include all costs of drifting, timbering, repairs, and general labor, 

 in that portion of the mine from which the ore in question was produced, but 

 do not include the cost of sinking the new prospecting shaft, or of carrying 

 on work not directly connected with the production of ore. 



The amount expended by the Imperial in prospecting or dead work, di- 

 vided by the number of tons of ore raised from the productive portion of the 

 mine, shows the cost per ton applied to this purpose, which is stated as an 

 additional item in the table referred to ; but neither of the items given in- 

 cludes general and incidental expenses, such as assaying, taxes, legal and 

 office expenses, freight, &c., which form a part of the statements of the Sav- 

 age, Chollar, and other companies. 



From the foregoing statements it appears that the cost of merely mining 

 or extracting the ore may vary between $3 and $5 per ton; that the inci- 

 dental expenses, necessary for the administration and maintenance of the bu- 

 siness, increase the cost, under ordinary circumstances, to $7, $8, or $10; 

 and beyond that amount indefinitely, according to the relation existing be- 

 tween the quantity of ore produced and the outlay for improvements, repairs, 

 or other extraordinary expenses. 



The expense of moving the ore from the mine to the mill, and the cost 

 of, or price paid for, milling, which will be discussed in detail in the following 

 chapter, vary in general between $10 and $14 per ton; so that the total cost 

 of production and reduction of the ore amount to $20 per ton and upward. 

 Thus, the expense in the Savage, during three years past, has been, on the 

 average, $21 28 per ton; in the Chollar-Potosi, during two years, $21 37; 

 and, if the accounts for each year of other large producing companies be care- 



